FOREST AND STREAM 
817 
water like a trout, yet, by the aid of his large and beau¬ 
tifully tinted dorsal fin, he can raise himself through the 
water and dart down again like a flash of lightning. So 
the judicious angler adapts his allurements to the taste 
of the fish, and spreading his flies as lightly as possible 
on the open water, allows them to float naturally on the 
surface. Again, a glittering streak of silver flashes up¬ 
wards, and this time the rod bends to a sportive little fish 
of herring size. There is a very general belief, which 
perhaps is greatly over estimated, that the mouth of the 
grayling is very tender, and so the landing net is brought 
into use even tor these small fish, much against the incli¬ 
nation of the angler, who thinks that surely no other fish 
will rise again for some tune on the same spot after such 
a disturbance. Won’t they, your ignoranee I They seem 
rather to like the fun, which now gets exciting, as the 
large pool is full of fish, which dart up and down like 
northern lights in the stream, until the feed is over, and 
then all is still again. These are the yearling fish, or 
shutt-grayling as they are called, which, having been 
hatched in great numbers during the early spring, make 
rapid growth and attain to herring size in the autumn, 
and to about half-a-pound by Christmas, They grow to 
a pound weight in their second year, and so on to two, 
but rarely exceed three pounds. The shutt-grayling may 
be caught by dozens during August and September, one 
after another out of the same pool, and often two to¬ 
gether, with only here and there some stray full-grown 
fish among them. 
In all grayling rivers some trout are to be found, and 
the two cousinly fishes thrive well enough together in 
such streams as are capable of sustaining their united 
families ; but as one is just going out of season when the 
other is coming in, it is just as well to observe that their 
habits, their haunts, and their nurseries are different in 
many essential details, and the favorite food of both, 
though very similar, is by no means identical. The trout, 
on the one hand, is an active forager and almost omniv¬ 
orous. He will chase the lively minnow and devour the 
smaller tribes of his own race, as well as the spawn and 
the foetus of the larger ; and then he will make a dinner 
of all sorts of grubs and insects and a supper of flies and 
moths. Tho grayling, on the other hand, is far more fas¬ 
tidious in the limited viands of his usual diet. He does 
not commonly hunt after minnows and small fishes, 
though there are undoubted instances of his having been 
caught with a minnow as a bait, and he does not forage 
in those parts of the river where the spawn of other fish 
is to be obtained. Feeding almost entirely on larvae and 
flies, he seems to prefer such as are enveloped in hard 
cases of sand and gravel, while all the minute insect life 
which lurks among the weeds and vegetation of the deep 
pools serves to furnish his principal sustenance, and so he 
is easily taken in with the min iature artificial representa¬ 
tions of his accustomed food : and he cannot resist the 
temptation of a choice ropast when a good representation 
of a grub or grasshopper is naturally presented to him. 
It has been said, indeed, that he eats freely of the water- 
thyme, which has gained for him his distinguishing ap¬ 
pellation of “ Thymallus,” and even still imparts to him 
that peculiar aroma of thyme or cucumber which he ex¬ 
hales when first taken out of the wator ; but tills fiction 
has not stood the test of experience, nor has any such 
vegetable matter been ever found among the food' in his 
stomach. Neither do the two families interfere with each 
other during the quarrelsome period of mating and spawn¬ 
ing ; for while the trout persistently runs upward to the 
fresh and cool waters of the of mountain streams, or small 
tributary brooks, to spawn, the grayling will never face 
the coldness nor stem the torrents of the Upper streams, 
but, if he changes his locality at all, always drops down¬ 
wards, and seek a warm and peaceful nursery. The fe¬ 
male grayling is generally attended by several males, it 
is said, and their spawn is deposited at the tail of a gently 
running stream, and there left uncovered, while the par¬ 
ent fishes simply remain on guard, to keep away intru¬ 
ders, during the short period that elapses till the young 
are Hatched out. Then the whole family drop down to 
some deep and quiet pool, where they all live and grow 
together till the autumn, when the angler comes to look 
after them. Then the shutt-grayling, in their youth and 
ignorance, play merrily with his treacherous flies, and af¬ 
ford an easy sport; but the elder fish are far less numer¬ 
ous, and more difficult to delude. 
Fish Swallowing Fish. —We declare the lists open. 
We offer as an inducement to competitors a prize of the 
biggest fish hook to be had in New York City. This will 
be awarded to the man, woman, or child who will tell the 
most capacious story about one fish swallowing another 
fish, or about a fish swallowing anything else. , Condi¬ 
tions : The story must be either of the narrator’s personal 
observations or of the observation of some one known to 
aome one else who has a friend who is known to the nar¬ 
rator. AU stories must be in before January 1st, 1880, 
Steam Dredging op Oysters.— The old manner of 
oyster dredging is about to undergo a revolution, In¬ 
stead of dredging with rakes by manual labor, as the cus¬ 
tom has been for many years in the Chesapeake Bay and 
elsewhere, the Connecticut oystermen now dredge the 
Fair Haven beds by steam machinery. The New Haven 
Register thus describes the process:— • 
The William H. Lockwood is a steamer of forty-nine 
tons burden, high in the bows, of wide beams, built in a 
style peculiarly adapted to work of this kind. She is 08 
feet long and has a draught of water of 51 feet. She car¬ 
ries in the stern of the boat an unusually powerful engine 
for a boat of her size, in addition to which is a double¬ 
cylinder engine for the hauling in of the oysters. Housed 
over, the men and oysters are protected from exposure 
to storm, sun and cold, and can work in the coldest 
weather. On either side are two doors, provided with 
rollers, over which the ropes run smoothly. Tire dredger 
proper consists of a piece of apparatus which resembles a 
carpet bag in its general appearance. It is made of pieces 
of linked chain, strong and serviceable, and is connected 
to the rope by three iron bars which proceed from the 
ends and middle, and which meet in a common centre, 
forming a ring, to which the rope is attached. There are 
, four of the dredges, and a man to look after the interests 
of each one. These carpet hags, aa one will call them, 
are connected by a series of ropes which run through a 
series of pulleys and blocks, and are connected with the 
engine. 
Tbe saving in manual labor is very great. By the old 
plan the raking taxes tho muscular power of die men to 
the utmost. By the new the steam-engine does the 
work, Our Chesapeake Bay dredgers would regard a 
bushel Of oysters each time the rakes are run up as a fail- 
haul. The Fair Haven dredges, worked by steam, loosen 
and gather at a single haul twelve bushels. By the new 
method time and labor are both saved, and the exposure 
in wintry weather, which breaks down the constitution 
of our hardiest oystermen, is almost wholly avoided. A 
very serious question will probably come up, however, as 
to the effect upon the oyster beds by this new process. 
An Ugly Fish. —A correspondent of the London Tele- 
rap): writes from the Seyohelle Archipelago of a small, 
uthighly-poisonous fish, called the “laf,” the “spines 
upon whose back are hollow and filled, like the fangs of 
a cobra, with a dangerous poison, which sometimes pro¬ 
duces death and always intense pain.’’ You may draw it 
unobserved into the boat when you are fishing, and find 
out its peculiarities before its presence is ascertained. 
Sharks, too, are more than abundant, and, it seems, hang 
about the frail boats of the place with such terrible ear¬ 
nestness as to appal sailors and cause them to refrain 
from tempting the deep ; the creatures eat the oars as 
they are thrust into the water, munch the sides of tho 
canoes, and altogether misconduct themselves so gravely 
that harpoons have to bo used in order to repel them. 
Happily, in respect to the “laf,” nature has provided an 
antidote, for no sooner has lie stung than his body offers 
a cure to any one who has the presence of mind to seize 
it, cut it open, and apply it to the wound. Against the 
teeth of the shark no such protection is offered, yet those 
who wish to avoid his mouth can do so by keeping ashore. 
They miss the enjoyment of the loveliest waters in the 
world, but they also escape a fate compared with which 
that of Jonah was child’s play, 
Is not this statement of the so-called antidote provided 
by nature, only another phaze of the belief current in 
some parts of our own country that the flesh of the rat¬ 
tlesnake cures the bite? Tlius is popular error widespread. 
But it might be reasoned on the other hand that this 
shows that there is something in it after all. 
Another story of poisonous fish comes from the antipo¬ 
des. Tbe pardoned communists who have just come back 
to Paris, tell us of the fish at the Isle of Pines, which, 
when eaten, gave St. Vitus’s dance, and at certain seasons 
brought on mortal illness. 
Pennsylvania — Watsontowii, Nov. 3d.—Bass fishing is 
over for the season, and a poor season it has been. The 
waters have been lower than has ever been known. We 
are catching a good number of Susquehanna salmon, some 
as high as nine pounds in weight. Quail and pheasant 
shooting will be good in this section. J. R. House. 
—A correspondent writes of a curious incident of vital¬ 
ity in a bine fish. When captured, it was in such poor 
condition that it was opened for the purpose of investiga¬ 
ting its food, and the heart was observed to continue beat¬ 
ing for more than ten minutes. 
—There is a good run of small striped bass in this neigh¬ 
borhood now, and good baskets are made from the Cen¬ 
tral New Jersey Railroad bridge which crosses Newark 
Bay, Larger fish are expected daily. 
NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
Tqe Amateur Poacher, By the Author of “ The 
G ame-keeper at Home” and “Wild Life In a Southern Country." 
Boston : Roberts Brotherni-1879. Price, $1,50. 
We have already spoken in high praise of the writings of this 
author. He has the power of learning- Nature's secrets, and 
pleasantly telling them, which is not often exhibited by more am¬ 
bitious writers. We have seen nothing of recent years so thor¬ 
oughly readable and instructive In this particular field, as the 
three books mentioned above. If anyone enioys reading the 
Forest and Stream he will surely enjoy, these pages also. 
The Practical Pigeon Keeper. By Lewis Wright, 
New York: Cassell, Fetter, Galpin & Co. Price, $1.50. 
Mr. Wright, well-known among poultry keepers as the author 
of the admirable "Illustrated Book of Poultry," uud other 
works upon the subject, bas given us in this book a comprehen¬ 
sive and exhaustive guide to the care of pigeons. Wo call the 
book comprehensive, because so fares careful examination shows, 
the whole subject is discussed, and exhaustive, because of the 
whole subject all is said that there is to say, and the book .Is more¬ 
over, as ir professes to bo, practical. 
The loft, breeding, care, exhibition, eto., eto., are fully treated 
and the valueof the pages areenhancedbynumerousillustrations. 
We commend it to all pigeon keepers, and we eommond pigeon 
keeping as a very pleasant as well as profitable recreation. 
The “ American Antiquarian.” An illustrated quar¬ 
terly journal devoted to Early American History, Ethnology 
and Archaeology; edited by Rev. 8. D. Peet, Cb'nton, Wis. Pub¬ 
lished by Jameson & Morse, 104 Clark street, Chicago, HI. Price 
$3.00 per annum. 
This magazine is devoted to a very interesting subject. It is 
well known that there ure many evidences of an ancient occupa¬ 
tion of this continent by a people whose history has always been 
enveloped in mystery. New facts, are, however, constantly 
coming to light which, though strange and sometimes mys¬ 
terious, are calculated to reveal something of the prehistorie con¬ 
dition of America. Travelers and explorers go to distant regions 
of the East to examine the ruins of Nluoveh and Babylon, and in 
these buried cities find many interesting confirmations of history. 
Others, also, traverse the frozen regions of the Arctic Sea to dis¬ 
cover tbs northwest passage: but at our very doors there are 
tokens of a buried past which deserve attention more than these. 
It Is the object of the -4. merfaxtn Antiquarian to so eollSetfacts and 
direct inquiry that this obscure history of our country shall be 
made known, aud tbe problem of man be ultimately sol red. The 
editor. Rev. S. D. Peet, has devoted many years to this sub¬ 
ject, aud the contributors uro all gentlemen who have high rank 
in the scientific world. It is one of the most readable magazines 
published, and we arp happy to com mend It as worthy of support. 
—Munn & Co., of this city, publish a convenient little 
manual entitled “The Scientific American Hand-Book,"which 
gives, , in compact form, a groat deal of information about 
patents, caveats, designs, trade-marks, etc. 1 1 is sent free upon 
application. The SetenHJle American has long been the recognized 
authority In its field, and it stows hotter every year. 
—The • ‘ American Naturalist ” opens with an instruc¬ 
tive article on “How Our Ancestors In the Stone Ago Made 
Their Implements." The writer is Mr. B. B. Redding, aud he de¬ 
tails some personal experience with Indian manufacturers of 
arrows, which help to make this a valuable ;eontribution to eth¬ 
nology, 
The “ Nuttall Bulletin.” The October number of the 
Bulletin , opens with a brief notioe of - the Blaok Capped Greenlet 
by Dr. Coues, accompanied by a beautiful lithographic plate of the 
male and female birds, and the nest. This is followed by the con¬ 
cluding part of Mr. Mearn's list of OrcgonBirds collected by Lieut. 
Wlttioh. Tbe breeding habits of the American Brown Creeper (Cer- 
ihia familiarix A m erica no) are charmingly set forth by Mr. Brews¬ 
ter, in one of those delightful articles which he knows so well how 
to write, and Mr. Leverett M. Loomis, who is introduced to the 
readers of the Bulletin by Dr. Brewer, contributes a List of Birds 
of South Carolian, enumerating one hundred aud forty species. 
Under the name F.ififnocnote, Mr. Itidgwav describes a new species 
of Peutumt from specimens obtained from Southern Illinois and 
Texas, and gives some valuable though brief notes with regard to 
its habits. Tho number is concluded by an interesting article by 
Mr. Scott on the Birds observed at Long Beach, New Jersey. He 
mentions seventy-fivespeoies, of which, as might be expected, a 
large proportion ace shore haunting birds. 
In Rocent Literature, wo notice two reviews by Mi-. Allen, of 
much interest. General Notes contains great amount and variety 
of bird news, and the whole number is, we think, more than usu¬ 
ally interesting. 
The Tribulations of a Chinaman in China, has 
been translated from the French of Jules Verne, by Virgina 
Champlin, and is published by Loo ,v Shepard, Boston. The 
author hits introduced tbe most progressive inventions of the 
day in the heart of China, and seeks to picture the peculiar ex¬ 
periences of a Chinaman surrounded by such bewilderments. 
Anecdote of Kossuth.—.E ditor Forest and Stream:— 
The following anecdote was related to me by an intimate 
friend of the celebrated Louis Kossuth : — 
“ Kossuth and several friends were hunting in upper 
Hungary. While at lunch, one facetious gentlemau wish¬ 
ing to play a practical joke, drew the shot from Kossuth’s 
gun. Hunting being resumed, the party scattered, though 
the wag remained near his victim to await the result of 
his trick. In Hungary, owing to the prevalence of large 
game as well as small, sportsmen prepare themselves for 
either by loading one barrel with buck-shot, the other 
with a smaller kind. Kossuth soon fired two shots in rapid 
succession, and his friend called to him : 1 What is it ?’ 
Kossuth answered: ‘A bear, and I have killed him!' 
‘Impossible!’ replied the other, incredulously; 'there 
was uo shot in your gun.’ ‘There he lies ; come anil see 
for yourself.’ Sure enough, the monster lay stretched in 
death, and when examined it was found a single shot had 
entered beneath the fore arm, penetrating the breast. It 
happened in this wise The bear appearing suddenly 
from a thicket Kossuth fired, this shot not taking effect, 
the animal advanced until within a short distance, when, 
raising himself on his hind legs for a final embrace, he 
was given the other barrel with the effect above men¬ 
tioned. Kossuth owes his fife to one small sfiot having 
remained in the barrel when the charge was drawn." 
Victor M. Hardeman, 
—Tbe Christian Union has a funny story of a post¬ 
master’s pet cat, which one morning was prying into tbe 
open mail bag after something which smelt good and got 
locked up with the letters aud papers, and was duly dis¬ 
patched thirty miles away to another post-office. The 
telegraph was brought into requisition, and the accom¬ 
modating postmaster at the other end of the line broke 
the rules of the Post-Office Department about sending 
living objects through il the mail and dispatched the stray¬ 
ing feline back again. According to our knowledge of 
cats he would have done better had he turned her out 
to get home herself. Cats can travel faster than the mail 
trains. 
From Rev, J. E. Rankin, D. D.—June 19th, 1879, the 
Rev. J. E. Rankin, D. D., of Washington, D. C., certified 
as follows : “ I have known of several persons who re¬ 
garded themselves as greatly benefitted aud some of them 
as permanently cured of diseases of the kidneys and 
urinary organs by the medicine prepared by Charles 
Craig, of Charlotte, N. Y, I have known, too, of its use 
in similar cases by physicians of the highest character 
and standing, I do not doubt that it has great virtue.” 
In a previous communication to the Congregationalist 
Dr. Rankin referred at length to the beneficial treatment 
of a case in his own family, pronounced Bright’s Disease 
by six physicians, with the Safe Kidney and Liver Cure, 
and said : “This treatment I want, in the interest of 
humanity, to describe and Commend."— Ado. 
Guns and Shirts.—W e saw in Mr. Squire's store the other flay 
about as fine a gun as ever came to our notice. It was a $300 Greener 
liaramerless, of exquisite finisli. 'With it upon the counter 
was a $300 Scott hainmeriC 36 , which had two sets of barrels. These 
flue g-uus wore imported for Mr, Koop, the shirt manufacturer of 
Broadway, this city, who is not only a good judge of what a gun 
ought to be, butable to handle one as well. Mr. Keep claims to 
make the best shirts in the market, and there are thousands of 
men and boys olotUed and in thoic right minds who are ready to 
substantiate this daim. 
—Nervous people should avoid the temporary relief of 
tea and coffee. A cup of pure cocoa will be found nutri¬ 
tive as well as sedative. Insist upon your grocer’s 
furnishing Walter Baker & Co.’S preparation. 
—For duck, geese or deer, take a few Solileber long- 
range shot cartridges. 
